BBQ News

Fort Worth rules Texas Monthly's new top 50 BBQ joints list of 2025

Congrats to Dayne's Craft Barbecue

Photo courtesy of Dayne's

Depending on how you count them, 18 Fort Worth-area barbecue restaurants have earned spots on the hottest barbecue list in Texas, via Texas Monthly magazine, which has issued its new list of the 50 Best Barbecue Joints in Texas.

And two Fort Worth favorites hit the coveted top 10: Goldee's Barbecue, a returning player, and for the first time, Dayne's Craft Barbecue in Aledo.

Here’s the new top 10, in order:

1. Burnt Bean Co. (Seguin)
2. LeRoy and Lewis Barbecue (Austin)
3. Goldee’s Barbecue (Fort Worth)
4. Redbird BBQ* (Port Neches, near Beaumont)
5. GW’s BBQ* (San Juan Texas in the Rio Grande Valley)
6. InterStellar BBQ (Austin)
7. Dayne’s Craft Barbecue* (Aledo, near Fort Worth)
8. LaVaca BBQ* (Port Lavaca)
9. Truth BBQ (Houston)
10. Evie Mae’s Pit Barbeque (Wolfforth, near Lubbock)

Published Tuesday, May 27, Texas Monthly’s new list is the latest update to its quadrennial ranking of Texas’ best places for barbecue. Texas Monthly presents the list as a ranked top 10 with the remaining 40 restaurant listed alphabetically by city. An additional 50 restaurants earn honorable mentions.

To compile the list, the magazine visited 319 restaurants, including more than 100 personally visited by barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn in January and February, he writes in the list’s introductory essay.

The four newcomers to the top 10 are marked with an asterisk to make them a little easier to spot. Compared to 2021, Burnt Bean Co. moves up from No. 4 to No. 1, followed by LeRoy & Lewis, which ranked No. 5 in 2021. Goldee’s, ranked No. 1 in 2021, drops two spots, and InterStellar moves from No. 2 to No. 6. Truth and Evie Mae’s are the only restaurants to make the top 10 in 2017, 2021, and 2025, a nod to their consistent excellence.

Conversely, both Snow’s BBQ (Lexington) and Franklin Barbecue (Austin) drop from the top 10 to the second 40 for the first time. Cattleack Barbecue (Dallas) and Panther City BBQ (Fort Worth) also dropped out of the top 10 but remain in the top 50.

The overall state of Texas barbecue has never been stronger, with Fort Worth-area BBQ restaurants making an especially robust showing.

TOP 50
DFW restaurants that make the Top 50 include:

Slow Bone BBQ, Dallas. A returnee from 2021, lauded for its sweet potato praline side dish.

Smokey Joe's BBQ, Dallas. Oak Cliff restaurant has been doing BBQ for 40 years.

North Texas Smoke BBQ, Decatur. Food trailer with good BBQ and sides, plus free beer.

Cattleack Barbecue, Farmers Branch. Returning list maker drops down from its top 10 status.

Smoak Town BBQ, Fate. BBQ trailer in upcoming suburb.

Sabar BBQ, Fort Worth. Buzzy, Pakistani-inspired BBQ.

Panther City BBQ, Fort Worth. Returning list maker drops down from its top 10 status.

Yearby's Barbecue & Waterice, Pilot Point. Barbecue and water ice spot 60 miles north of Fort Worth.

HONORABLE MENTIONS
DFW earns eight honorable mentions, as follows:

Hurtado Barbecue in Arlington. DFW chain also made the list in 2021.

Smoke 'N Ash BBQ, Arlington. Mom-and-pop earned a Michelin nod as well as a recent appearance on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.

Brix Barbecue, Fort Worth. Lauded for specials like the tomahawk pork chop.

Smoke-a-Holics, Fort Worth. "Tex-soul" restaurant with "spectacular oxtails" made the list in 2021.

Zavala's Barbecue, Grand Prairie. Family-owned barbecue spot is another return list-maker.

Hutchins BBQ, McKinney. Collin County BBQ spot made the list in 2021.

Patriotic Pig Smokehouse, North Richland Hills. Mid-cities restaurant gets praise for its burgers.

Smoke Sessions Barbecue, Royse City. BBQ restaurant 32 miles northeast of Dallas.

As for CultureMap’s predictions, we accurately identified seven of the top 10, and all 13 restaurants we spotlighted made the top 50. We’ll take it.

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Vegan News

Fort Worth's only fine-dining vegan restaurant abruptly closes

Chris Plavidal

Maiden: Fine Plants and Spirits

Fort Worth's first and only fine-dining vegan restaurant has closed: Maiden: Fine Plants & Spirits, the vegan tasting restaurant that opened in June 2023 in the PS1200 complex, closed abruptly on July 7.

According to a post from the owners, the restaurant was locked out of its space and is now permanently closed.

The post acknowledges that the restaurant had "fallen behind" on paying its rent.

"Like many independent restaurants, we’ve faced an incredibly tough six months with rising costs, a slower season, and the lasting economic effects that so many small businesses are feeling right now," the restaurant's post says.

"We had fallen behind on rent and were hoping to renegotiate our lease and keep Maiden going in the space we’ve loved so deeply. Unfortunately, those efforts didn’t come together in time."

Maiden was the ambitious venture from the founders of longtime vegan restaurant Spiral Diner & Bakery, and opened with big dreams in the same block as Spiral Diner, alongside a companion bakery-dessert shop called Dreamboat Vegan Donuts & Scoops.

Maiden debuted with a $150 seasonal 8-course tasting menu consisting entirely of plant-based food, designed to be consumed over a two- to three-hour timespan, with two seatings per night, and room for 50 diners per seating.

But they also opened with limited information about the menu, very few photos, and photos that did not present the food well (see example above). They also enacted a rule that diners could not take photos of the food — further limiting the restaurant's marketing and viral reach.

In recent months, the restaurant posted that business had fallen off. Meanwhile, Dreamboat quietly closed in March 2025, and its doughnut operation was shifted over to Spiral Diner. They also closed two locations of Spiral Diner: Denton in 2024 and Dallas in 2022.

Interest in vegan dining surged leading up to and during the pandemic, and Fort Worth saw a number of openings in recent years; but some have closed or changed their business model including Mariachi's Dine-in, acclaimed pizzeria Pizza Verde, and Vice Burger.

As is always the case when a restaurant is locked out for nonpayment of rent, Maiden did not receive advance notice.

"We weren’t given notice before the lockout, and we’re still processing how abruptly this chapter has ended," the post says. "It’s painful and disorienting but we know how much heart went into every part of Maiden, and how much love came back from this community in return."

The management is offering its staff other employment opportunities, and thanked its customers.

"Maiden was a team built restaurant with everyone working together towards a common goal. We are all feeling this loss deeply," the post says. "We don’t know yet what comes next. But we’re still here. And we still believe in cruelty-free cuisine."

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